Thursday, March 26, 2009

Pearson Launches Powerful Online Essay Scorer

Pearson's new Online Essay Scorer powered with WriteToLearn technologies is an important component of the new California Literature program.

WriteToLearn is a complete writing skills and reading comprehension development tool. WriteToLearn combines the simplicity of Knowledge Technologies' (KT) and the depth of KT's Intelligent Essay Assessor™ into one Web-based product that allows educators to evaluate and teach both writing skills and reading comprehension. WriteToLearn is based on the KAT™ engine, which uses a proprietary application of the mathematical approach known as Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA). The KAT engine is a unique automated assessment technology for written language that evaluates the meaning of text, not simply grammatical correctness, spelling or other surface elements.

WriteToLearn provides at-a-glance reporting for students and teachers about assignments and progress via easy-to-understand, visually appealing tutorial feedback and status reports. Teachers have flexible scoring options through adjustable passing thresholds and the ability to hide one or more areas of scoring feedback so students can focus on specific areas.WriteToLearn also offers assignment flexibility thanks to a wide variety of essay prompts and readings to be summarized (identified by subject and grade level) with different scoring options for different classes.

From a single-screen visual scoreboard, teachers can view classes, assignments and progress. And WriteToLearn provides easy drill down to student score detail and writing portfolios.